The soaking or pickling of meat sections in the past has usually been carried out by simply filling a tank or vat with a suitable liquid or pickling mixture and immersing meat sections therein. Recently however, various different proposals have been made for speeding up the process and rendering it somewhat more economical, and also achieving a somewhat deeper penetration of the pickling mixture into the meat. Such proposals have included proposals for tumbling the meat sections by rotating or moving a tank, and also for applying either pressure or a vacuum to such a tank. Generally speaking, however, the apparatus proposed for these different purposes has been unduly complex and expensive. It must be borne in mind that the pickling of meat products is carried over a relatively lengthy cycle, up to 24 hours or more in some cases. To achieve any worthwhile volume in production, it is, therefore, necessary to have a very large number of such tanks or other equipment, each of which will be processing only a single batch of meat sections during such 24 hour period.
Such improved processes have been unduly complex, however, and have often resulted in a certain degree of marking of the exterior of the meat sections. In the majority of cases the meat is first of all de-bonded and de-fatted and is cut up into sections or chunks and then pickled. After pickling is completed, the pickled meat sections are then stuffed into casings, or molds and cooked or smoked. It is of course desirable that the cooked chunks of meat will adhere together so that in use they can be sliced up and served. In practice, however, it is found that they separate relatively easily.
In addition it was always the practice to speed up the pickling by injection of the pickling mixture into the meat as a preliminary step. This left undesirable markings in the meat which made it less attractive when served.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide a process for pickling, without damaging of the meat sections, and which results in greater adhesion of the meat sections in the final smoked and cooked product and which reduces the marking of the meat by injection.
The cost of the equipment used for the process is a principal factor in its design since in a meat processing factory of any size at all, relatively large numbers of such tanks must be provided. Accordingly, the process should preferably be capable of being carried out in relatively simple inexpensive machinery.
In addition to these principal factors, equipment must of course be as effective as possible for the purpose. In the case of the present invention, it has been found that the meat sections such as briskets, hams, picnics or the like may advantageously be subjected to a continuous gentle massaging effect which does not only merely agitate the liquid, but actually subjects the meat itself to a crude form of massaging partly by direct contact with the meat sections, and partly by massaging action between the meat sections themselves. This produces a much greater and more rapid penetration of the liquid into the meat than would otherwise be the case. The design of the apparatus for this purpose must, therefore, be such that while being economical to build, and simple to clean and service, it must also be such as to provide an effective massaging action for the greatest penetration of liquid into the meat.
Tumbling or stirring of meat sections has been proposed. However, such processes tended to cause excessive tissue damage, for reasons which were not entirely understood. It is therefore desirable to avoid such damage which is regarded as unacceptable to consumers.